I recently remembered an intense conversation I had with a friend that took place years ago at a local popular Chinese buffet (shout out to Super Buffet in Dupont) on the topic of shrimp. As we peeled the clear shells off of our chilled crustaceans, she mused how gross it was to see the shrimp’s visible intestinal tract (now you know) before popping it into her mouth. Now even though that tube is pretty much filled with algae, plankton and other harmless goo, she just had to take it a step farther, splitting open the shrimp’s back and rubbing the brown innards between her fingers.

Recently, I picked up a box of veggie shrimp scampi (seen before) partly prompted by my buffet experience but also because I wondered what in the world faux shrimp could be made out of. Continue Reading »

Now as someone who runs a site called “Clearance Cuisine”, one would assume that I’m probably extreme couponer, but I’m actually a sucker for in-store and online contests. This also saves me from scissor-induced Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and aggravating grocery store cashiers on a daily basis. Not wanting to pass up a chance at winning something, I ended up playing an instant win game on the Stouffer’s Facebook page back in February, and hey, I happened to win a free frozen meal (well, a coupon for one that arrived a couple of months later).

Marisa,

We’re happy to let you know that you’re a winner in the STOUFFER’S Stuffed Melt and Soup Match ‘Em Up promotion! You’ve won a coupon good for a free stuffed melt and soup combo, which has an approximate retail value of $3.69. Congratulations! There’s nothing you need to do except look for your prize within 8-10 weeks.

After getting the coupon in the mail, I picked up the meal on a shopping trip with my dad to the local military commissary (hooray for dependent benefits) in March and it’s been aging nicely in the freezer since. Continue Reading »

While Halloween would seem like the ideal time to write about some discounted candy or some weird chocolate we recently found, sadly I’ll have to disappoint you this year. Admittedly, all chocolate products in this household are generally consumed within mere hours of its arrival here and the only candy I have is some mint gum (trick-or-treaters, you’ve been warned. Thankfully it’s not feasible to egg just one apartment door).

In the meantime, I picked up this frozen bar last week and spent sometime researching it. This is a bad habit from my college days, with just a dash of obsessive-compulsiveness mixed in. Who made this product? Why is it only 30 cents? Who in the world thought an energy popsicle ice pop (Popsicle is a brand name) was a good idea? I could probably make it as an investigative journalist, but I’m afraid I’m much too non-confrontational and timid to do anything like that. Continue Reading »

In my forays into international grocery aisles, I’m constantly finding more and more fermented food and drinks we haven’t tried like canned kimchi, kombucha, and kvass (keep an eye out for a future review on that one). On one of my last visits to the Lakewood Saar’s (probably the same trip I bought the Frutiking), I spotted a bottle of tepache, below the familiar Jarritos, Mineraga and sangria. What’s tepache you say? Well I’m glad you asked, because I put way too much time on these posts doing background research on what the products we eat and drinks actually are.

Thank goodness for Wikipedia! It’s not just useful for college papers!

Tepache is “a drink made out of the flesh and rind of the pineapple, sweetened with brown sugar and cinnamon and sometimes beer. Tepache does not have a high quantity of alcohol, since it is left to ferment for only about three days. The alcohol comes mostly from the addition of a small amount of beer, the most common way of serving it in Mexico. It is a drink better served cold with dry chili powder to give it a spicy taste. Tepache is commonly made by inmates in Mexican prison, because the process of creating tepache is simple and quick. However, tepache can also be found in taquerias since it is a rather cheap drink. Housewives sometimes prepare tepache. In markets, you can sometimes find a vendor with an orange barrel full of ice-cold tepache.“

Lots of showbiz families seem to have famous/not-so-famous sibling(s) such as the Baldwin brothers, Ben & Casey Affleck and my personal favorite, Ron and Clint Howard. In the food world, the infamous Burger King (now mysteriously out of the limelight/possibly booked for lewd and lascivious behavior) happens to have a lesser known Mexican cousin, who goes by the name Frutiking (who I like to imagine wears a very colorful cape and has a sceptre topped with a pineapple).

Anyway, the newest trend with food products seems to limiting serving sizes in the hopes of curbing the obesity trend in America. Who hasn’t seen 100 calorie packets of Oreos, single serving cups of ice cream (so I won’t feel guilty about eating ice cream from the tub, not that I do anyway) and now miniature cans and bottles of soda. Continue Reading »

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About the Blog:

Musings about food from January 2011 – June 2013

Click “Past Reviews” at top to see an alphabetical list.

I always hesitate to call this a food review blog. I believe the taste, enjoyment and pleasure of pretty much all foods is quite subjective. Until someone (Webster’s dictionary or otherwise) develops a word for the antithesis of a foodie, epicure, bon vivant or gastronome, I generally place myself into a category of people who can eat, enjoy or tolerate pretty much anything (I’d say human garbage disposal, but that doesn’t look professional on a business card).

My approach is simple. Find discounted food/drink and just write about it – whether a food is foreign, vegan, meant for children, etc. I could care less if a candy has high fructose corn syrup, agave nectar, Splenda or otherwise, but if it has amusing packaging or an insane marketing campaign, you bet I’m gonna write about it. This blog has one mission: finding cheap food, make the most of my 99 cents and having a fun time doing it.